Monday, March 26, 2012

Stacy Long Goes to Spring Training

Stacy Long is a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser and blogs about the Montgomery Biscuits, the Tampa Bay Rays AA team. He is, as far as I can tell, the only print reporter who goes to Port Charlotte to see what’s going on in minor league camp. I’d been wondering if he was going to be able to make it down there this year, and he has. He is a terrific writer with a good sense of humor. If you are wondering who might be in line to show up later this summer as a Durham Bull, you can do no better than keeping an eye on Biscuit Crumbs. Link also at my sidebar.

Over on his blog yesterday he reported that catcher Craig Albernaz, just about my all-time favorite Durham Bulls catcher, has just been sent down to minor league camp. Four other ballplayers, pitchers Jhonny Nunez and Romulo Sanchez, infielder Matt Mangini and outfielder Brad Coon were also sent down. All of those, with the possible exception of Albernaz are very likely to be in a Bulls uniform at the start of the season. Although Craig has spent a good bit of time in Durham over the years, by far most of his time has been in Montgomery. The Rays seem to like him there where he can help bring young pitchers along.

Long quotes Joe Maddon as saying: “He’s [Albernaz] been a big part of our success just by what he does on a daily basis. He’s a lot of fun to be around. He doesn’t complain about the workload. This guy has coach written all over him.”

In an even more recent post, Long quotes Rays GM Anthony Friedman as saying Matt Bush won’t be playing for the Rays, hence not for the Bulls, this year. “I think it’s safe to say that he’s not going to play for us on the field.”

In his story in the Advertiser, Long reports on the competition between former Biscuits (and former Bulls) Jeff Neimann and Wade Davis for a starting pitching slot.